Thursday, 9 February 2012

New Zealand Day Fourteen – Auckland

Early this morning we
packed everything in the car and travelled back to Auckland.
The journey took about three hours.
Roads in New Zealand
are much quieter than England
and the only traffic we hit was on the motorway coming back into Auckland.

As it was my sister’s
birthday we went for lunch at a very nice Swiss café in Milford
and then we drove along the North Shore to see all the Bays, stopping at Long Bay
for a walk along the beach. The weather
was the best it’s been since I arrived – about 25 degrees and sunny, which was
heavenly.

In the evening we went to
the Sky Tower in the city, which, like the old
Post Office Tower in its hey day, has a revolving restaurant as well as an
observation floor. Both give a 360
degree view over the whole of Auckland
and it was easy to see for miles. One option I quickly declined was bungy jumping over the side of the building, though for some strange reason it was a popular activity. We watched quite a few people hurtle past the window on their way to the ground and I felt queasy just observing.

As the
sun began to set, its light breaking through wispy clouds cast a golden glow
over the city, distant hills, islands and the sea. Just beautiful.